Machinery for treating textiles in sheet form with a fluid medium

ABSTRACT

The machinery comprises a rotatable perforated drum with an impeller inside the drum to cause a fluid to pass through the perforations and through a textile web on the drum to treat the web, such as cleaning it. In order to deal efficiently with webs of varying widths in a simple manner an adjustable shroud is provided in the form of a sleeve which can be extended and withdrawn axially of the drum to blank off or open up perforations in the drum. Preferably the sleeve is of telescopic form and barrier means are provided to control the flow of treatment fluid to resist any tendency for the web to lift, at its edges, from the drum and to flatten edge curl on textile webs arriving at the drum.

United States Patent I I191. Collinge I [111 3,828,589 Aug. 13, 1974 [5 MACHINERY FOR TREATING TEXTILES I I IN SHEET FORM WITH A FLUID MEDIUM [75] Inventor: Robert Alan Collinge, Rochdale,

England [73] Assignee: F. Smith & Co. (Whitworth) Limited, Great Britain [22] Filed: Oct. 26, 1972 [21] Appl. No.: 301,180

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data Oct. 30, 1971 Great Britain 50563/71 [52] US. Cl 68/158, 15/307, 34/122, 68/184, 68/DIG. 5

[51] Int. Cl. B05c 3/132 [58] Field of Search 68/DIG. 5, 5 'D, 5 E, 7.8,

- [56] I References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Fleissner.. 68/184 x 5/1970 Fleissncr 68/184 X 3/1971 Fleissner 68/D1G. 5

Primary Examiner-Harvey C. Hornsby Assistant ExaminerPhilip R. Coe Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Harrington A. Lackey 5 7 ABSTRACT The machinery comprises a rotatable perforated drum with an impeller inside the drum to cause a fluid to pass through the perforations and through a textile web on the drum to treat the web, such as cleaning it. In order to deal efficiently with webs of varying widths .in a simple manner an adjustable shroud is provided in the form of a sleeve which can be extended and withdrawn axially of the drum to blank off or open up perforations in the drum. Preferably the sleeve is of telescopic form and barrier means are provided to control the flow of treatment fluid to resist any tendency for the web to lift, at its edges, from the drum and to flatten edge curl on textile webs arriving at the drum.

4 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures PATENTEB AUG 1 3:914

SHEET t [1F 4 MACHINERY FOR TREATING TEXTILES IN SHEET FORM WITH A FLUID MEDIUM BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention concerns textile machinery and has more particular reference to machinery for use in the treatment of textile materials in sheet form with air or a liquid.

Textile machinery is known which comprises a perforated drum rotatably mounted within a substantially closed container, an impeller or impellers arranged coaxially within the said drum and adapted, upon rotation, to generate a flow of treatment medium radially of the drum to pass through a textile web lying outwardly of the drum and in contact with the surface thereof.

It has been proposed to adjust the position of the impellers axially of the drum in accordance with the width of the web under treatment, so as to restrict the passage of treatment medium to an axial zone of the drum coincident with the'web.

It is an object of the present invention toprovide such machinery which is not committed to use impellers adjustable in position but which can nevertheless, in a simple manner, be regulated in accordance with the width of material to be treated.

It is also an object of the present invention to provide means in such machinery for resisting any tendency of the edges of the material to liftfrom the perforated drum during treatment and for causing flattening of curled edges on material arriving at the drum.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The invention provides textile machinery for the treatment of textile materials in sheet form with a fluid medium comprising a substantially closed container, a perforated drum rotatably mounted within said container, at least one impeller within said drum and arranged so that upon rotation, it generates a flow of treatment medium radially through the perforations in said drum and through a textile web thereupon, along the outside of the drum, and along the inside of the drum, and shroud means to blank off at least some of the perforations of said drum in which said shroud means comprises a sleeve whichcan be extended axially of the drum from at least one end of the drum towards the centre region of the drum to blank off progressively, as it is extended,.perforations in said drum, and displacement means for causing axial extension and withdrawal of said sleeve.

Preferably the sleeve comprises a plurality of coaxially arranged sleeve sections disposed in overlapping relationship and telescopically related.

Baffle means are secured to axially innermost of the sleeve sections. The baffle means act to cause fluid flow to press the edges of material on the drum into close contact with the drum. The term fluid medium" is intended to include air as well as liquids.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS A preferred form of textile machinery according to the present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:-

FIG. I is a diagrammatic end elevation of a twocompartment textile web washing machine;

FIG. 2 is a. sectional plan view on one end of one compartment of the machine of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 3'is a sectional elevation on the other end of said one compartment.

FIG. 4 is a diagramatic perspective view of the one end of the machine shown in FIG. 2.

,DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT In FIG. 1 a textile web washing machine comprises two compartments 10, 11. Each compartment has a substantially closed container 12 in which there is rotatably mounted a perforated drum [3. Two impellers 14 (only one being shown) are mounted in fixed position at opposite ends of a shaft 15 in each drum 13 and arranged so that on rotation, the impellers generate a flow of treatment medium along the inside of the drums l3 and radially through the perforations of the drums and along the outside of the drums. A web 16, typically of about two metres width, is shown passing through the two compartments 10, 11. The path of the web includes inlet rollers 17, 18, 19 and 20, the outside of the first perforated drum 13, a 3,000 pound nip 21, intermediate rollers 22, 23, the outside of the second perforated drum 13, a 10,000 pound nip 24 and a plaiter 25.

In FIGS. 2 and 3 there are shown the container 12,

the drum 13, the impellers 14, the shaft 15. The edges of the web 16 are indicated by short lines carrying the reference numeral 16. i The drum 13 has a telescopic shroud 26, 27 at each end. Each shroud comprises three coaxial sleeve sections 28, 29, 30, telescopically arranged, the radially inner ones 30 being fixed at brackets 31, 32 (not visible in FIG. 2) and the radially outer ones 28, which are axially the innermost ones, carry baffles 33 and are free to be moved axially by a pair of screws 34, 35 extending the length of the drum and engaging right-hand threaded nuts 36 secured in one of the baffles 33 and left-hand threaded nuts 36 (FIG. 3) secured in the other of the baffles 33.

The screws 34, 35 pass through the container 12 at glands 37, 38 and they carry drive sprockets 39 linked to move together by a chain indicated by the line 40.

The shaft 15 for the impellers 14 passes through the container 12 at glands 41, 42 and is carried in bearings 43, 44.

The drum 13 is carried on two rims 45 connected by spider arms 46 to bosses 47 carried in bearings 48. The

drum is driven via a gear 49 on one boss 47 (FIG. 3) engaging with a gear 50 driven by a shaft 51 passing through a gland 52 and carried in bearings 53. The gear 50 has a deflector cover 54. FIG. 4 shows, in particular, the location of the web 16 relative to the baffles 33. A similar but opposed. arrangement exists at the other, right-hand end, of the machine compartment or container 12 as shown in FIG. 3.

In operation of the machine described above, the

drum 13 is caused to rotate to draw the web 16 through the machine. The shrouds 26 and 27 are telescopically extended to predetermined axial positions by adjustment of shafts 34, 35 to accord with the width of the web 16. When the shrouds 26 and 27 are properly adjusted, the axial portion of each baffle 33, attached to the shrouds 26 and 27, is spaced radially from the drum l3 and extends axially inward from the radial portion of the baffle 33 to overhang the opposite edges'of the web 16,- as shown in FIGS. 2, 3 and 4. The impellers 14 are caused to rotate so that washing liquid is drawn through the web 16, through the perforations of the drum 13, axially along the inside of the drum and then axially along the outside of the web and drum to pass through the web again. Make up of washing fluid is provided for by sprays and removal of washing fluid is provided for by overflows.

Extending of the shrouds 26- and 27 causes progressive blankingoff'of the perforations in the drum 13 so that the web 16 overlies substantially all of the perforations remaining open. The baffles 33 cause treatment medium at the lateral edge regions of the web to flow across the outer face of the web in a direction towards the web edge with the result that any tendency of the web to lift from the drum, such as would result from selvedge curl, will be resisted.

Modifications are envisaged within the scope of the present invention. The telescopic sleeve form of shroud could be replaced with bellows arranged to expand and contract to blank-off and expose perforations in the drum. In place of a screw and nut arrangement for moving the shroud a piston and cylinder arrangement could be used. It would be possible to provide a shroud inside the drum but this would tend to more complicated mechanical arrangements to operate the shroud. The impeller could be shroudedand the shroud rotate with impeller.

I claim:

1. Textile machinery for the treatment of textile materials in sheet form with a fluid medium comprising a substantially closed container, a perforated drum rotatably mounted within said container, at least one impeller coaxial within said drum and arranged so that, upon rotation, said impeller generates a flow of treatment medium radially through the perforations in said drum,

through a textile web thereupon along the outside of.

the drum, and along the inside of the drum. shroud means adapted to be positioned relative to said drum to.blank-off predetermined perforations of said drum. said shroud means comprising a sleeve having an axially innermost end, said sleeve being extensible axially of the drum from one end of the drum towards the center region of the drum to blank off progressively, as said sleeve is extended, perforations in said drum, displacement means for causing axial extension and withdrawal of said sleeve and a baffle member carried by said innermost end to induce in fluid approaching the drum in the region of said innermost end a component of axial movement in a direction to cause the edge of the textile web on the drum adjacent said innermost end to be pressed upon the drum.

2. Textile machinery as claimed in claim 1 in which said sleeve comprises a plurality of coaxially arranged sleeve sections disposed in overlapping relationship and telescopically related so that they can be axially extended or withdrawn, the axially outermost sleeve section being axially fixed and the axially innermost sleeve section carrying said baffle member.

3. The invention according to claim 1 in which said baffle member is shaped to cause the fluid approaching the drum in the region of said innermost end to flow across the outer face of the textile web on the drum in an axial direction toward the edge of the web.

4. The invention according to claim 3 in which said 7 baffle member comprises a radial portion fixed to said on said drum. 

1. Textile machinery for the treatment of textile materials in sheet form with a fluid medium comprising a substantially closed container, a perforated drum rotatably mounted within said container, at least one impeller coaxial within said drum and arranged so that, upon rotation, said impeller generates a flow of treatment medium radially through the perforations in said drum, through a textile web thereupon along the outside of the drum, and along the inside of the drum, shroud means adapted to be positioned relative to said drum to blank-off predetermined perforations of said drum, said shroud means comprising a sleeve having an axially innermost end, said sleeve being extensible axially of the drum from one end of the drum towards the center region of the drum to blank off progressively, as said sleeve is extended, perforations in said drum, displacement means for causing axial extension and withdrawal of said sleeve and a baffle member carried by said innermost end to induce in fluid approaching the drum in the region of said innermost end a component of axial movement in a direction to cause the edge of the textile web on the drum adjacent said innermost end to be pressed upon the drum.
 2. Textile machinery as claimed in claim 1 in which said sleeve comprises a plurality of coaxially arranged sleeve sections disposed in overlapping relationship and telescopically related so that they can be axially extended or withdrawn, the axially outermost sleeve section being axially fixed and the axially innermost sleeve section carrying said baffle member.
 3. The invention according to claim 1 in which said baffle member is shaped to cause the fluid approaching the drum in the region of said innermost end to flow across the outer face of the textile web on the drum in an axial direction toward the edge of the web.
 4. The invention according to claim 3 in which said baffle member comprises a radial portion fixed to said innermost end and an axial portion spaced radially away from said drum and extending axially inward from said radial portion to overlie one edge of the textile web on said drum. 